Pages

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Ms. Cupcake Cookbook Review (and Giveaway!)

London based purveyor of sweet treats, Ms. Cupcake, has written a cookbook and I'm super excited about it! For anyone who's tried, or wanted to try, Ms Cupcake's delicious creations it's great news. If you haven't heard of Ms Cupcake yet lemme tell you a little bit about her.

Long time readers of the blog will know that I've always been a huge fan and supporter of Ms. Cupcake. From the days when I'd get a boat along the thames to get to Greenwich Market for her cupcakes...

...to the opening day of the store, to working behind the stall at VegFest, I've been there!

As well as creating wonderful sweet treats Mellissa, the woman beneath the hat, is sweet, funny and inspiring and I'm excited to be able to call her a friend. I'm SO happy for her right now because this book is awesome.

It's beautiful, it's hard-backed, and it's full of artistic colour photographs of gorgeous baked goods and the store's colourful staff. More importantly it's jammed full of recipes for everything sweet, from cupcakes to deep fried cookie balls.

Of course I've taken the cookbook for a little spin around the kitchen!

I started with the Jaffa Cake recipe. I was super excited to see this childhood favourite in the book but if you aren't British you may not have heard of this delicious cross between a biscuit and a cake. The soft cookie comes covered in chocolate and an orange jelly hides inside. This recipe is super simple as it calls for orange marmalade rather than a complicated home-made agar based jelly. I was super sceptical about this idea at first but I have faith in Ms. Cupcake so I picked up a no-peel version from Waitrose and ran with it.

Aside from the marmalade I had everything else I needed to bake these in the house already. Awesome!

They were ridiculously quick and easy to throw together, as I was making them I remember thinking "Even Nick could bake these" and he is definitely not a baker (he does make a mean tofu scramble though)! Due to my baking these at night time I didn't really get a good picture but here they are chilling in the fridge.

The picture really doesn't do these justice, they were AMAZING! Seriously, so good. I planned to just eat one or two and then send the rest to work with Nick but, nuh-uh, that didn't happen. I ate more than my half and I can't wait to make them again. The recipe says that these can make 12 or 15 and I would suggest making 15 (rather than the 12 I made) for a more accurate Jaffa Cake.

Yesterday I made my second recipe from the book, the Chocolate Chip Cookies. I always grab a cookie when I visit Ms Cupcake in her shop or on one of her many stalls and I was super excited about being able to recreate these at home.

These cookies are huge, chewy, bakery-style cookies and they're perfect. They were ready just as Nick got back from work and we both loved them, I ate two as soon as they were cool enough to handle and they were almost exactly the same as the cookies from the bakery itself. I loved finding a new-to-me technique within the recipe which helps to flatten them out and to give them the desired chewy texture and this will definitely become a go-to recipe in our house.

The book actually doesn't come out until May 9th but a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to receive a review copy from publishers Random House. I had already pre-ordered myself a copy of the book so I'll be passing the review copy on to one lucky reader! Don't worry I've been super careful with it so it still looks shiny and new - no chocolate splatters or rouge bits of marmalade!To enter the competition I need you to find me an adorable picture of a bunny, post it on Facebook, tweet about it with the hashtag #jojoisawesome and....hahaha, no. You just need to leave a comment on this blog post!The competition is open to anyone, anywhere in the world and I will be announcing the winner on Friday May 3rd 2013. I have to post the book on May 8th before I leave on my epic Seattle / Portland / Vida Vegan Con trip (OMG! So excited!!) so please make sure that there's a way for me to contact you if you win and that you're paying attention to your e-mails so that I can get your address in time. Good luck!

We have a winner! The random number generator has picked Mihl from Seitan Is My Motor! Congratulations Mihl, Jaffa Cakes will soon be yours!

The 3th of May is My birthday and I asked My boyfriend For this book as a gift. But I know already I' m not gonna get It, because it's not avalaible yet. But if I should win It on My birthday that would Be so Great.

Last October I found myself in a fantastic little vegan café in Finland that is run by students called Turun Kirjakahvila. They hold live music and discussion events and are very into their political rallies and, of course, vegan cooking. The best thing about this place was that they sold homemade vegan Jaffa cakes which look just like your photo, and the even better bit, is that they call them Yaffa cakes(!) which I found hilarious. They were so delicious and I am so sad that I cannot get my hands on any more, that, like everyone else here, I think I need that recipe!

Ah,I so want this book! I adore Ms.Cupcake! I met her a few years ago at the Christmas Vegan fair in London and she was so lovely. I've since been enjoying her treats at numerous other festivals but have yet to go to the Brixton shop. I read on Two Happy Vegans about lemon curd slices in the book which look amazing, as do the jaffas and cookies.

Oh man, I was hoping you were serious about the bunny picture thing, since I have two who live in my house! But we only actually need to leave a comment? Well, here I am! I would love to win this book. I'm making my first ever trip to England at the end of July and CANNOT WAIT to stop in to Ms. Cupcake's store. Having the book would get me even more excited for my visit!

I would love to win that book! And I'm so glad it's a worldwide giveaway, because I live in France!Really like your blog, by the way! You make me fancy travelling a lot!!here is my email : rosecitronvg [at] gmail [dot] com

Long time reader, first time commenter here - I suppose it takes the offer of Ms. Cupcakes goodies to get me out of the woodwork, haha. I lived in London for a few months and I remember making the trip down to her shop, all the way from North London, just to sample the goods. My email is cathrynyeah@gmail.com :)

Hilarious; I was trying to remember where I'd seen the photo of the bunny with the pancake on its head! I visited London for the first time last month and Ms. Cupcake was a super-duper highlight! That Ferraro Rocher cupcake? To. Die. Worth the airfare alone.P.S. #jojoisawesome

This sounds awesome! I had no idea there was a vegan cupcake shop in london or I would have Definately visited when I was last in London!! Also, #Jojoisawesome. Fact!(ooh yeah. and hannahlyz@hotmail.co.uk ♥ Just in case!)

I haven't had a chance to try Ms Cupcake yet but since coming to the UK she has popped up on my radar. Combine that with my love for dessert and cookbooks and I need this book! Thanks for the awesome giveaway!

Great review! I was lucky enough to hear Ms Cupcake talk at the Cake and Bake Show London. What an inspiring woman. So far I haven't been lucky enough to sample and of her goodies. Would love to be able to make them myself!

As soon as I saw the 'share a picture of a cute bunny' I thought 'I'm in!!' haha. My bunny Harvey Aloysius McBunBuns will be disappointed but I think he'll get over it. That's so strange as we were talking about Jaffa Cakes last night and I spent ages googling trying to find some vegan ones and couldn't find any. So I NEED this book ;) It looks really good, and so do your cookies. Love soft and chewy cookies, I can feel my belly getting bigger already!:D urban_lake @ hotmail . com

This is pretty exciting! I feel like cookbook authors have been afraid to touch the subject of vegan cupcakes ever since VCToTW came out and became the end-all, be-all book on the subject. I would be so curious to check this out, hoping that it revives the beloved cupcake back to its original popularity.

I have been looking at this book online and a few other Vegan baking books. I don't really bake, but I'd like a good baking book (and Ms Cupcake's as it is a UK based one) to dip into and keep for a long long time. What do you think is the best Vegan baking book?

I love that she's written a book! I've only ever tried one of her cupcakes but it was one of the most delicious ones I've ever had, so I'd really like to try her recipes. And I've never had a Jaffa cake, so clearly I need to make those.

ABOUT ME

Oh hey! I'm Jojo! Vegan in Brighton is my travel, food and lifestyle blog. I'm currently living my life on the road as I made the leap from endless wanderluster to full time traveller in January 2015. Find out more about me, my travel plans, my likes and dislikes, and how to work with me on the About Me page.